TORONTO -- The Yankees arrived here in Toronto to what must surely have been welcome headlines -- Jose Bautista is out for Monday night's series opener with a hamstring strain, Brett Lawrie is on the disabled list with a broken finger -- plus some even more welcome news when Mark Teixeira told manager Joe Girardi that he would be OK to play Monday.

"I checked when he got here and he said he was OK," Girardi said. "I waited to put the lineup up just to make sure that his foot was all right and he said it was good."

Teixeira took a pitch off his left foot in the eighth inning of Sunday's 8-0 loss to the Orioles, but X-rays were negative and he came in feeling well enough to play Monday night, batting fourth and manning first base against the Blue Jays and their right-handed starter, Marcus Stroman.

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Jeter sits:Derek Jeter is not in the lineup, but it was a scheduled day off. Jeter said Girardi told him Sunday night that he would not play Monday -- made necessary by the shortstop's age (he turns 40 on Thursday), the unforgiving Rogers Centre artificial turf, and the unbroken string of games the Yankees are in the midst of.

"I wasn’t going to run him out there nine days in a row," Girardi said. "It's almost like giving him two days off (following Sunday's day game)."

Jeter's No. 2 slot in the batting order will be taken by designated hitter Carlos Beltran, the third time he has hit second this season.

"It gives us a pretty big hitter between two lefties," Girardi said of the switch-hitting Beltran, who is flanked in the order by Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. "And if they want to bring in a lefty, you obviously have a guy who can hit a ball out of the ballpark right-handed, so they have to pick their spots."

Sim City for CC:CC Sabathia, who has been on the disabled list since May 11 with right knee inflammation, will throw either a simulated game or live batting practice in Tampa on Tuesday -- Girardi wasn't quite sure which.

"They call it BP if you tell them what’s coming and it’s a simulated game if you don’t tell them what’s coming," said Girardi, who added that either way Sabathia is scheduled to throw 35 pitches. There will be at least one more sim game/live BP for Sabathia after that, after which Girardi said, "Then we'll see."

No word yet on a possible rehab assignment or a projected comeback date.

Nuno to face Red Sox: Girardi continues to maintan that Vidal Nuno, who has gotten shelled his past couple times out and has allowed a team-high 15 home runs in 67 1/3 innings, will get the ball when his turn comes up -- on Friday night, when the Red Sox come to the Bronx to open a three-game weekend series.

"It’s too hard on all our guys physically," Girardi said of the possibility of skipping Nuno and using Masahiro Tanaka on Friday on four days' rest. "You’ve got one guy (Hiroki Kuroda) who is 39, you’ve got one guy (Nuno) who has, what, 19 starts under his belt? You have one guy (Tanaka) that is used to pitching every seven days. [David Phelps] was pushed really hard the last time. I think it becomes difficult to start doing that. If it’s later in the year, I think you think about it. But at this point, I think you’re taking a lot of chances."

Chasing the Jays: The Yankees' starter on Monday, Chase Whitley, pitched against the Blue Jays last Wednesday at Yankee Stadium and earned the win, going five innings and allowing two runs on five hits in a 7-3 victory. His opponent on Monday, Stroman, got knocked out of the box in the fourth inning of last Tuesday's game at the Stadium, allowing two runs on four hits -- including a home run by Gardner -- to take a tough-luck loss in the Yankees' 2-1 win.

No player in Monday's Yankees lineup has had more than two career at-bats against the 23-year-old from Medford, Long Island.